[mp-gg] Re: Best rifle round

["Sebastian Palm" <sebastian.palm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter M. Rauch" <waltrauch@earthlink.net>
To: <mp-gg@TheNostromo.cx>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 7:51 PM
Subject: [mp-gg] Re: Best rifle round


> > This has been debunked by people far more educated on the topic
> > than I.  I
> > won't go into the arguments or cite the proof as I don't have
> > them readily
> > available, but this was one of those myths that seemed to spring
> > up during
> > the adoption of the rifle and round.
>
> No one with any grasp of ballistics can argue that a .223/5.56 round is
> appropriately lethal for 150-300 pound dangerous game, especially with the
> requirement of FMJ rounds. Besides, this "fact/bunk" was repeated
throughout
> my active and reserve service, "officially", and thus was some sort of
> doctrine, which is true and believed by all loyal soldiers. Right? (wink
> wink
> Either,

Walt, for once, I'll actually jump in on Kurt's side here. For combat,
rather
than stalking, I'd choose 5.56 mm over 7.62 mm any day. It didn't take much
convincing, either, once I saw the ballistics studies.

Reason number one: The full round weight of the M855 (5.56 mm NATO)
cartridge
is half that of the M80 (7.62 mm NATO). I get to pack twice as many, at the
same bulk.

Reason number two: Have you ever seen what the 5.56 mm round does to a soft
target at realistic combat ranges? The rapid decelleration is too much for
the bullet, which makes it break up inside the victim. The actual hole is
almost three times as big as that of a 7.62 mm round, because of the
fragments. If I had to take a rifle hit, I'd want it to be a 7.62 mm - if I
didn't die from the initial shock, I'd have an excellent chance of pulling
through, because of the penetration profile. A 5.56 mm round would simply
shred my guts - there'd be nothing to patch up afterwards.

> Someone was counting on "wounded is good enough to take the man out, and
two
> more as a bonus".

Maybe this was what was aimed at, (no pun intended), but it's not quite what
they got.

> or
>
> Someone was criminally stupid, a liar, or both.

That's plain bogus.

> I prefer to give this legend lip service, as option two is just too
> demoralizing to troops sent into combat with a 5.56mm cartridge.

Besides, it's been proven so thoroughly that KE is not the end all of
wounding power that I won't even try.

(The whole "gunning down the mutineers bull I'll adress in a moment)


Sebastian





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